Koreas in marathon talks to end military standoff

Seoul: Top-level North and South Korean negotiators talked through the night with no sign of an agreement Monday for ending a military standoff that has threatened to boil over into armed conflict.

After a 10-hour marathon the previous night, the talks passed the 19-hour mark in a second session in the border truce village of Panmunjom, where the 1950-53 Korean War ceasefire was signed.

The second round was clouded by South Korean claims that the North was seeking to influence the negotiating process with provocative military movements.

South Korea´s defence ministry said the North had doubled its artillery units at the border and deployed two-thirds of its total submarine fleet -- around 50 vessels -- outside their bases.

The ministry added it was also closely monitoring the movement of North Korean landing craft, following a Yonhap report that the North has deployed about 10 air-cushioned amphibious landing craft carrying special forces to a naval base about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of the Northern Limit Line, the maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea recognised by the South.

The North recognises a different maritime boundary known as the Military Demilitarization Line, which is south of the NLL.

"The North is adopting a two-faced stance with the talks going on," said a South Korea defence ministry spokesman who described the scale of the sub movement as "unprecedented".

"We take the situation very seriously," he added.

The negotiations in Panmunjom are being led by South Korean national security adviser Kim Kwan-Jin and his North Korean counterpart Hwang Pyong-So -- a close confidant of leader Kim Jong-Un.